I have said it many times: Writing isn’t inherently difficult; marketing is. Unfortunately, all too many marketing and PR folks exacerbate the problem by using antediluvian tools.

My History With PR Firms

Over the years, I’ve worked with several to help me get the word out when I’ve dropped a new book. To be sure, they were all nice people and, for the most part, competent professionals. Still, I didn’t hire them for their charming personalities. I wanted them to help me gain top-tier placements. In some cases, they landed some high-profile media outlets. Appearing on CNBC in 2013 to talk about Too Big to Ignore was a highlight.

On the other hand, none of these pricey outlets used what I would consider to be an organized, contemporary system of tracking pitches and publications. Not even close. (If they did, they sure didn’t share their mythical creations.) In each case, I lacked transparency into what was—and wasn’t—happening. Although I received weekly or biweekly status reports, real-time visibility into my pitches constantly eluded me. Believe me. I asked. #diva

A few examples will illustrate my point:

• Firm A routinely emailed me weekly reports as Word attachments. Its employees were oblivious to the beauty of structured data.
• Firm B used Slack, but poorly. The leadership eschewed anything resembling order; chaos ensued. (Pro tip: Sending a deluge of DMs doesn’t let anyone answer the simple question, “Where are we with X?”)
• Firm C thought that the very idea of using Google Sheets to track media placements in 2023 was too cutting-edge.

Of course, better mousetraps existed; these firms’ employees just didn’t want any part of them.

Tracking PR

What do you get when you fuse a deficient process, a bevy of unstructured data, and a boatload of emails and DMs? A whole bunch of inefficiency and plenty of frustration. Eventually, tech-savvy clients consider taking their business elsewhere. We don’t slam our firms on social media, but we don’t exactly send referrals their way, either.

Ask yourself a simple question: When clients ask you for a quick overview or a simple status update, what do you do? In an era of low-code/no-code tools and citizen development, there’s no excuse for scurrying to find basic information. None. Everything should be at the ready.

One need not be an author or a full-fledged PR firm or publicity specialist, though, to benefit from a straightforward pitch and placement tracker. Startups, artists, and firms launching new products also stand to save a good deal of time when organizing this critical information.

The Solution

Against this backdrop, I’m pleased to announce the launch of my third Notion template.¹ The Simple Publicity Tracker is a tightly integrated, elegant, three-database system that allows anyone to quickly and efficiently track publicity pitches and placements. 💥

As you’ll see in the screenshots below, the first database provides summaries by media type:

• Guest post.
• Article.
• Interview.
• Podcast.
• And more.

Use the second one to enter all pitches and update them as necessary. Changes to statuses seamlessly cascade throughout the system. The third and final database tracks media contacts.

In total, The Simple Publicity Tracker ships a few dozen useful database views—and you can add others as needed. Ever the geek, I also threw in some cool formulas to identify live articles missing links and a few other useful goodies that piggyback on Notion’s powerful functionality, such as its calendar view. Buttons rock.

Can You Write Your Manuscript in Notion?

Screenshots

Here are several screenshots. Click on each one to embiggen it.

Dashboard

Media Leads Tracker: Table View, All Data

Media Leads Tracker: Calendar View, Live and Scheduled Posts

Media Contacts

Media Contacts: Contact Gallery

Added to RacketHub

Oh, and I’ve updated RacketHub to include all three databases in The Simple Publicity Tracker. Anyone who buys the best book-management system on the planet will now receive this new functionality at no additional cost. I’ve just renamed the databases to jibe with the RacketHub nomenclature:

Final Thoughts

You should all of your media leads and placement at the ready. Always.

This is the tool I wish my previous PR firms had used. It would have made life so much simpler.

Click on the button below to learn more and buy The Simple Publicity Tracker.